


Kings and Queens

by manic_intent



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Full spoilers for the game, M/M, That Postcanon(ish) fic about a certain missing scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 03:05:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10548986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manic_intent/pseuds/manic_intent
Summary: “Storage room offer’s still open,” Reyes said, with a sly curl to his mouth as Ryder hesitated.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Damn. Each time I think I've finally weaned myself off fandom, something comes along and pushes all my buttons.
> 
> I was thinking between using “Scott” instead of Ryder since there are two Ryders in the story (+the sister) but I’m used to the game referring to my character as Ryder, so Ryder it is. Ahh. Short fic, because I totally would have blown off the Hyperion party to go to a storage room. Maybe longer fic to come, but I just needed to get this one out of my system.
> 
> In case you missed the tag, this story contains full spoilers, so, spoiler space
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“Storage room offer’s still open,” Reyes said, with a sly curl to his mouth as Ryder hesitated. 

Around them, the party was shifting into proper gear: somewhere beyond, music pulsed in a dull reverberation past sterile steel, a new heartbeat for the retired Hyperion. People milled, joking and laughing in joyous knots, made temporarily purposeless by celebration. Watching them made Ryder feel dislocated all over again, but this time there was no hiding in his room with his sister, skimming over a dead man’s memories. 

“Ryder.” Reyes pitched his voice lower, frowning slightly. “Scott?” 

Ryder managed a grin, his default line of defense. “Sorry! Got distracted. That’s. A krogan dancing? Or at least vibrating in tune. Or convulsing. Not sure. It’s not something you’d see everyday.” 

“Right,” Reyes said briskly. Gloved fingers closed firmly over Ryder’s wrist, and tugged lightly. 

“Really?” Ryder asked, amused, “Now?” He did, however, let Reyes lead, away from the party and into a maintenance shaft, built narrowly. Here, the music hummed in a dull bass around them, tuneless, seeping up through their boots in faint tremors. The air smelled plasticky, recyclers running on full. 

“Pretty sure everyone saw me leave,” Ryder said, as they took a right, then a left. “Also, the hell did you know about this place? You haven’t been on the Hyperion that long.”

“Long enough,” Reyes said. He flashed a sharp smirk over his shoulder. “I’m a good smuggler. Good smugglers always find… interesting places.”

“And interesting things to steal?” 

“Sometimes. No vintage bottles of whisky left in the stores, not that I’ve seen.” 

The corridor fed out into what was indeed some kind of storage room, recently decommissioned. Brackets sat empty against the hull where they had likely once braced supply crates. This part of the ark was built more like the military ships that Ryder was used to, way back in another life in a distant galaxy, with a studied economy of space, minimal redundancy. It was… comforting. He could feel himself instinctively relaxing, irrational as that was. 

“What about finding interesting people?” Ryder inquired innocently, as Reyes crowded him into a corner. 

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments,” Reyes told him, even as Ryder hauled him over the rest of the way. Reyes always kissed like he was working through a heist: confident, yet somehow furtive, demanding and urgent, fingers closing over the back of Ryder’s neck, over the arch of his hip. Ryder bit as he kissed back, just to feel Reyes shudder against him and press flush, the buckles and ribbing of his jacket digging against Ryder’s civvies. 

“Slow down,” Ryder murmured, when they broke. “We’ve already saved the world. Nothing left to rush to.” 

“ _You_ saved the world,” Reyes corrected, though he mouthed a warm line down Ryder’s jaw to his throat, chasing his pulse. 

“Pretty sure you were there.” Ryder tipped up his chin, giving Reyes better access. “Along with a whole lot of people whom I didn’t realize were really going to show up. It was like the weirdest high school reunion ever, with everyone armed to the teeth. And crazed robots.”

“I should have followed you in. Instead of staying on the surface.” The playfulness had bottomed out of Reyes’ voice, all of a sudden: Ryder twitched in surprise. He tipped Reyes’ chin up, meeting sober eyes. 

“So why did you? Stay on the surface?” Ryder asked, curious. He hadn’t thought about it. All he’d been focused on was saving Sara, blindly pushing forward. Without everyone who’d pitched in–the krogan scouts, Jaal’s siblings, hell, even _Kalinda_ –he probably wouldn’t have made it all the way unscathed.

“It was… familiar. Or it seemed to be. I wouldn’t know the least about traversing alien structures. Would’ve gotten into your way, made things worse. Or so I tell myself now.” 

“But at that time?” Ryder waited, but when Reyes said nothing, he pressed on. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Things worked out. Hell, I didn’t even think about it.” 

“At that time,” Reyes said quietly, “things looked–and felt–desperate. I just… It looked like a suicide run. I didn’t. I didn’t want to watch you die.” 

“Eh.” Ryder tried flippancy. “It’s happened before, I’m used to it. Three times now.” Reyes blinked. “Yeah, I’ve come back from the dead so many times, they’ve probably installed a revolving door with my name on it. Annoys my ship doctor like you wouldn’t believe.” 

“You,” Reyes began, then seemed to give up, kissing Ryder instead, slower this time, savouring him, until they were both out of breath, their lips spit-wet. “Tell me about it. Later.” 

“Besides, you being around probably wouldn’t have been a good idea,” Ryder said, relieved that Reyes was relaxing. “I was really surprised when you showed up in the first place. Got pretty distracted.” He’d gawked openly when Reyes had disembarked from his shuttle, and had promptly been shot in the back by some enterprising Kett Chosen. Thank fuck for shields. 

“I noticed.” Reyes said dryly. “Bad form, Pathfinder.” 

“Don’t blame me. I blame your ass.” Ryder grinned wickedly and kneaded the ass in question. Reyes rolled his eyes, but at least he got right back to business. They kissed until urgency fed back in and Ryder was starting to sweat into his civvies, grinding up impatiently against Reyes’ thigh, picking and pulling at their clothes. Belts made it to the floor, then Reyes’ jacket, warm fingers tucking up under Ryder’s shirt, tracing old scars. 

“Tickles,” Ryder complained, breathless. 

This felt new all over again, which disoriented him. Before, their trysts had been quick and dirty, for the most part, other than the impromptu dancing in a back room in Tartarus. Not because they were both busy people, not really; but because they were both _hungry_. Sex wasn’t difficult to come by for Ryder and never had been, not even now, but with Reyes it was different. Ryder had never played for keeps before. Somedays, he was fairly sure that he was Doing It Wrong. 

“You’re in a strange mood.” Of course Reyes noticed. 

“I did just get a ton of things named after me. It’s a side effect from my ego swelling.” 

“You’re restless,” Reyes corrected. “Believe me, I know what that feels like. Sometimes, when you get what you want, it’s easy to feel… dislodged.” 

“Speaking of getting what you want, Vetra asked me whether you becoming King of Kadara meant that I’d become the Queen,” Ryder said lightly. Reyes chuckled. “Do I get perks?”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you leveraging my name for benefits,” Reyes pointed out, with a sharp nip over Ryder’s throat, close enough to his jaw to leave a mark. 

“I was going to make that up to you,” Ryder said, unrepentant, and pretended to simper, batting his eyelashes. “How do I make it up to you, your Majesty?”

“Stop that,” Reyes said, chuckling again, taking a bruising kiss for himself before going down on his knees, graceful as ever. “Don’t tell me that I’ve got to make you.” 

“Okay, I won’t tell you to make me,” Ryder told him cheerfully, “but I was totally going to tell you to make me.” 

“Sometimes it amazes me that you’re now one of the most important people in this galaxy.” Reyes nuzzled Ryder’s hip, down to the apex of his thigh, breathing deeply, his hands stroking up past Ryder’s knees, a reverent touch that made Ryder’s heartbeat pick up. Stars, Reyes looked _good_ like this, and he knew it.

“Only sometimes? I should’ve introduced you to Cora earlier, before all this went down. And Evfra. And Addison. All of you could’ve formed a club. ‘Occasional Serious Doubts about Ryder Anonymous’.”

“Only sometimes.” Reyes smiled up at him, with a gentleness that Ryder knew to be his and his alone to see. 

Before he could say something to ruin it, Reyes was working on his clothes, impatient again, tugging Ryder’s breeches to his knees. The air was chilly on bared skin, though he’d only barely yelped before Reyes closed in, visibly impatient, sucking Ryder’s cock into his mouth and hells but he looked perfect like this, eyes closed, coiled between Ryder’s bracketing legs, lips stretched. Ryder whined as he filled out quickly, hungry again, possessive. 

He wanted to thrust into Reyes’ mouth, as deep as he could go, scratch marks onto his throat, his back, bite scars into the flesh of his thighs. When they were like this, Ryder wanted to _have_ Reyes in a visceral way that sometimes scared him. It’d have been more unsettling, if he hadn’t seen the same sort of vicious lust mirrored in Reyes himself. They’d infected each other. Before him, Reyes swallowed greedily, his throat working, hands clenched over Ryder’s thighs, thumbs digging into the meat. He’d leave bruises. Ryder braced himself on Reyes’ shoulders, hissing at the wet, _hot_ slide down Reyes’ throat. Slow–they’d do this slow today. He twitched his hips back, ignoring Reyes’ questioning noise, then rocked forward carefully. This time, Reyes chuckled, his mirth forced into a silent rumble around Ryder’s cock, then he sucked noisily. Ryder jerked, with a yelp, then froze as Reyes moaned this time, pulling at him, breathing hard. 

Well. Since he’d ‘asked’ so nicely. 

Any attempt at keeping a rhythm was shredded quickly by Reyes’ impatience. Ryder was sure that he was being too rough, too quick, but even as he tried to slow when Reyes choked, fingers dug into his thighs, urging him on. He couldn’t last like this even if he tried, Stars, the _view_. So much for his plans about going slow. Crying out, not even caring if sound carried, Ryder held Reyes down as he spilled. Messy business. Reyes grinned up at him, wiping his mouth, fluid tracking down his throat, then he yelped as Ryder growled and shoved him down. Ryder bit down on Reyes’ neck, tongue pressed to his own bitter taste, and shoved his hand against the bulge in Reyes’ breeches, too rough, probably too dry, but Reyes bucked against him anyway, gasping, fingers clenching over Ryder’s shirt, then he was shaking, sinking down. 

Ryder sat up over Reyes’ belly, catching his breath, ignoring Reyes’ weak slap at his knee. “Tell me about your grand plan to explain away the mess,” he told Reyes brightly. 

Reyes shrugged. “It needs to be explained?”

“I suppose the walk of shame only works if someone’s actually capable of feeling shame. Which. You apparently don’t?”

“We’ve got that in common, I think,” Reyes said dryly, narrowing his eyes as Ryder smirked at him and deliberately wiped his hand clean on Reyes’ jacket. “But you’re going to owe me for that.”

“I’ll pay you back aboard the Tempest. Come on,” Ryder added blandly, when Reyes tilted his head. “You didn’t think that I was going to let you take some shuttle back to Kadara, did you? Let me spoil you for a change. Besides, you’d look great in my cabin. Maybe placed somewhere between my model ship collection and my hamster.” 

“Glad to hear that I rank above the hamster,” Reyes said, though he smiled again, that secret lover’s smile, and pulled Ryder down for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I wish there were more romance scenes for Reyes... :( Heard they're going to "improve" the male romance options for Ryder over the next couple of months, but we'll see. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
